The Federal Government has said that water from the Lagbo Dam in Cameroon is not responsible for the flooding that has devastated parts of Nigeria.
The Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu, stated this at the 2023 budget defence of the ministry in Abuja on Wednesday.
He cleared the notion that the water resulting in the flooding is from Lagbo Dam, saying that the inflow from the dam to Nigeria is only one percent.
Latest official data revealed that 603 people have died with more than 1.3 million others displaced by floods, which has affected people across 33 states across the federation.
Mr Adamu said, “Yes the (Lagdo) dam releases water; sometimes it releases water without notice and when they do that, it has an impact on communities downstream.
“It is not the main reason you have flood in this country.
“The tributaries of River Benue are the main cause. And this year, the rains have been unprecedented.
“The trans-boundary water that even comes into this country from Rivers Niger and Benue constitutes only 20 percent of the freshwater that flows into the country.
“Eighty percent of the flood is water we are blessed with from the sky falling on Mambila and Jos Plateau.
“Most of this flow is from Nigeria,” he said.
However, the minister said that the Federal Government is not often informed by the Cameroonian Government on the annual release of water from Lagbo Dam.
“It took a lot of effort for us for them to sign an MoU to inform Nigeria about releases.
“It was signed in 2016. Since then, every year , when the flood season comes it is the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency that calls them to know their level of water.
“We can not blame the flood this year on Cameroon. We can only blame them for violating the terms of the MoU,” he said.
Adamu further said that the government would call for a review of the MoU.
On the Dasin Hausa Dam in Adamawa which could serve as a solution to flooding, Adamu said that “whether we are able to do the dam or not, we will continue to have floods on the Rivers Niger and Benue Basins.
“There was a consultant that had been appointed by the previous administration to work on this dam.
“When I came into the office, I checked the scope of work and the terms of reference. I was not satisfied that justice will be done to that design.
“You can not build a dam as important and strategic as Dasin Hausa on River Benue without a detailed feasibility and engineering design.
“I disengaged the consultant in 2016. It was one of the 116 projects that we had.”